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kaberettSo a week ago I was poking idly at YouTube, and it recommended me a Frank Turner track I hadn't heard of before, and so I listened to it and went "yeah okay I'd happily yell myself hoarse to this at a gig, wonder why I haven't heard of it before"... and then noticed a new album, titled Positive Songs for Negative People, had been released the day before.
So I ordered it. (And in the process noticed I'd missed an intervening release, 2013, Tape Deck Heart, and on reading the lyrics I was very glad I had, because it's an entire album afaict about how he's still really self-pitying about his breakup with Amy and her invisible llama, like, it doesn't even seem to include the Traditional Tuneless Libertarian Track.) And because I am a glutton for punishment (and it was an extra £2 for an extra ten tracks) I ordered the deluxe version, and it arrived yesterday, and I rolled my eyes so hard I think I might have sprained something, right. Because I have only myself to blame, if I'll keep buying the deluxe releases, but, right, it's a double album made up like a tiny vinyl double album - cardboard sleeves that fold out to reveal a centre spread, CDs in each cardboard sleeve inside their own thematically-printed paper slipcases, liner notes, etc, and dear sweet ike he is such a wanker why do I keep buying his music--
(-- because he writes shit like I Still Believe and and on the worst days/when it feels like life weighs/ten thousand tonnes/I sleep with my passport/one eye on the back door/so I can always run/yeah I can wake up, shower/and in half an hour/I'll be gone, along with a bunch of incredibly self-indulgent misogyny and libertarianism--)
-- and I sat down and I listened to it, and I spent most of the album going "yeah, I'd happily yell myself hoarse to this at a gig, not an utter waste of money" -- and then. The last track happened. And then I cried my fucking eyes out and put it on repeat for a quarter of an hour and cried some more and then listened to the entire damn album again and cried more.
Because, you see, spoilers and also content notes that are themselves a spoiler but relate to depression--
-- in that, you see, the last track on the album is called Song For Josh, and it is this heartbroken expression of toxic masculinity on the topic of a friend of his who killed himself. And you listen to this song, this second acoustic track on the main album (the first being the opening track), and suddenly the fact that the connecting theme of the album is we are still the fuck alive, we are still here, we can do better, we can be more, we are alive hits you in the fucking solar plexus and -- oh. Oh fuck.
So I ordered it. (And in the process noticed I'd missed an intervening release, 2013, Tape Deck Heart, and on reading the lyrics I was very glad I had, because it's an entire album afaict about how he's still really self-pitying about his breakup with Amy and her invisible llama, like, it doesn't even seem to include the Traditional Tuneless Libertarian Track.) And because I am a glutton for punishment (and it was an extra £2 for an extra ten tracks) I ordered the deluxe version, and it arrived yesterday, and I rolled my eyes so hard I think I might have sprained something, right. Because I have only myself to blame, if I'll keep buying the deluxe releases, but, right, it's a double album made up like a tiny vinyl double album - cardboard sleeves that fold out to reveal a centre spread, CDs in each cardboard sleeve inside their own thematically-printed paper slipcases, liner notes, etc, and dear sweet ike he is such a wanker why do I keep buying his music--
(-- because he writes shit like I Still Believe and and on the worst days/when it feels like life weighs/ten thousand tonnes/I sleep with my passport/one eye on the back door/so I can always run/yeah I can wake up, shower/and in half an hour/I'll be gone, along with a bunch of incredibly self-indulgent misogyny and libertarianism--)
-- and I sat down and I listened to it, and I spent most of the album going "yeah, I'd happily yell myself hoarse to this at a gig, not an utter waste of money" -- and then. The last track happened. And then I cried my fucking eyes out and put it on repeat for a quarter of an hour and cried some more and then listened to the entire damn album again and cried more.
Because, you see, spoilers and also content notes that are themselves a spoiler but relate to depression--
-- in that, you see, the last track on the album is called Song For Josh, and it is this heartbroken expression of toxic masculinity on the topic of a friend of his who killed himself. And you listen to this song, this second acoustic track on the main album (the first being the opening track), and suddenly the fact that the connecting theme of the album is we are still the fuck alive, we are still here, we can do better, we can be more, we are alive hits you in the fucking solar plexus and -- oh. Oh fuck.
I'm trying to get better cuz I haven't been my bestGet Better, Frank Turner
she took a plain black marker, started writing on my chest
she drew a line across the middle of my broken heart
and said c'mon now, let's fix this mess
we can get better
because we're not dead yet
(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-14 03:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-15 04:21 pm (UTC)But from what you say, it sounds like he's hit-and-miss... and hit-and-miss isn't a problem any more, in this age of buying MP3s by the track. I should listen more.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-15 04:42 pm (UTC)(If you liked I Still Believe you will probably like Get Better off this new album.)
(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-15 04:54 pm (UTC)Yeah, I liked I Still Believe, and that's the only one I can remember. I shall do some listening on Spotify.